Perspectives sur les enjeux contemporains | More Perspective on Current International Issues

This morning I woke to see every major newspaper and blog picking up on a non-story and giving it front page prominence – the supposed admission by an « Iranian politician » (later upgraded to « top politician » and « top lawmaker ») that while Iran could build nuclear weapons, it has decided not to. Though by the look of the identical wording and repeated, meaningless details padding out the story, this was nothing more than a boast or a throw-away remark by a man who is at best an outside economic advisor, at worst part of the workings of Big Oil in Iran.

« Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghadam, whose views do not represent the government’s policy » these articles begin – never explaining who this man is or what he does precisely (because he is a nobody) – is being used as some sort of « evidence » of Iran’s immanent threat to annihilate Israel. Is this some sort of sick Passover joke? The fact that every newspaper and blog dared not neglect to pick it up tells us far more about on-message conservative media control and lack of journalistic integrity than it ever does about the true state of Iran’s nuclear intentions.

This is the most ridiculous story yet in the propaganda campaign that is Israel’s latest bloodlust. We must stop giving stories like this a place in serious considerations of military action that could potentially change the course of the world – or does anyone believe a full-scale attempt to bomb out Iran’s nuclear laboratories would remain confined to those square miles in exurban Tehran?

Disinformation and bald-faced lies are all we can expect from Israel’s so-called « defense » department; the U.S. is not far behind, though President Obama at least seems to understand what is at stake and is trying to prevent an attack by Israel. So far, it is clear that Israel is the nuclear-capable aggressor and that any threats against it come from outsiders with no real influence on the Ahmadinejad government – which has asserted again and again that it has no intention of creating a nuclear arsenal or attacking Israel. Israel, on the other hand, has assassinated Iranian scientists that have not been shown to be anything more than private citizens who are capable of understanding how nuclear weapons work. They have carried out limited bombing campaigns inside Iran, destroying and killing civilians in well-documented missions, and all this almost uncommented on – and certainly not restricted by – the U.S.

Criticism is beginning to coalesce and mount against these lawless outrages, but it seems as though push will come to shove because those who wish to control Iranian oil will not stop shoving; because bitch, please – nobody is supporting a war on Iran who is not concerned with the bottom line, profit. The « defense of Israel » is a cynical, disingenuous smokescreen.

As this story morphs each time it is told, getting taller and broader, with nothing substantial behind it in the first place, it will become lost or mixed into the toxic soup which feeds this whole disgusting war-machine. So don’t believe everything you read.